Posts that reference the Gospel of Mark

Is Fear a Sin?

Not too long ago, my son asked me a very pointed question– Is fear a sin?

I was reading just this week, that the Bible contains 366 “fear not” kinds of verses. That’s a lot. And when you read Revelation 21:8 the fearful or cowardly are listed with some big-time sinners who will have their part in the lake of fire. So the Bible commands us not to, and those who do get judged. Open and shut case.

Except I don’t think it’s quite that cut and dried. Fear is an emotion. Often emotions happen without any connection to our brains. Anyone who has had, or been, a teenager knows what I mean. They are impulsive, even instinctual reactions to a situation. Sometimes fear is a good, protective mechanism. Fear of injury and death gets us to leave a burning building. Fear of germs and who-knows-what-else keeps us from eating that cookie we found under the refrigerator.

So, the question is not, is fear a sin, but rather, what does fear prompt you to do or not do?

Fear of rejection makes us cave to peer pressure.
Fear of exposure makes us lie.
Fear of exclusion makes us hide our faith.
Fear of deprivation makes us betray our values.
Fear of failure prevents us from acting.

Consider Jesus’s take on fear. But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” Mark 5:36 ESV

In short, fear can lead to distrust of God’s goodness and disobedience to His commands. Suspicion of God’s goodness and His motives is a sin as old as Eden. Disobedience and rebellion are the very definition of sin.

Anytime we allow our emotions to drive our actions and decision-making rather than the truth God has given us, we venture into dangerous territory.

It is important to recognize that most of those “fear nots” come with an alternative. In Mark 5:36, Jesus said, “Do not fear, only believe.” Replace fear with trust. We’ll look at this a little deeper next time.

He is Risen!

By Paula Wiseman

But [the angel] said to [the women], “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. Mark 16:6

This is an incredible moment – literally. Too extraordinary and improbable to be believed. Jesus told them. (Matthew 16:21, 17:23, 20:19). He had raised Lazarus a week or two before. But the women (and the rest of the disciples) go on, operating on their own understanding of how life works, how it has always worked. That’s about to change. Incredibly.

God graciously sends an angel to help the women understand what had happened. Let’s break down his message.

Do not be alarmed. – Our first response to drastic change and worldview shift is … stress and worry. Things are uncertain and no longer secure. But in this case, the change is the best thing ever.

You seek Jesus of Nazareth – The angel knew the mission the women were on. And they could be confident that this message was for them,

Who was crucified – He didn’t “swoon” or faint. He died. No one survived a Roman crucifixion.

He is risen! – Jesus is no longer dead. He has been raised by the power of God.

He is not here – This is a tomb, where dead people are. He is not dead, so He is not here.

See the place where they laid Him – You are not in the wrong tomb. Here’s is the place where you saw the body laid on Friday afternoon. Now the body is gone. Jesus isn’t just “spiritually” raised. He isn’t a ghost. His body has come back to life.

The Resurrection changes everything

We change from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.
The payment for all our sins has been accepted.
Every word Jesus said is true.
We are reconciled to God
We are adopted into His family.
We have an inheritance and eternal life.
And so much more …

If you don’t believe He is risen …

Then you don’t believe the gospel. Paul preached the Resurrection, and he said if anyone preached anything different from what he had preached, that was another gospel, a false gospel. (2 Corinthians 11:4, Galatians 1:8-9)

Then you aren’t saved. Paul says in Romans 10:9, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” The Resurrection proves the sin debt is paid. You must believe that Jesus Christ’s death was for your sins and that He was raised, proving you are right with God.

You have no hope.

Paul walks through the logical implications if Christ is not risen from the dead.

And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up–if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
1 Corinthians 15:14-19

Jesus Christ is risen, as He said. That is the theme of Acts and the Letters. It is the reason for the praise offered to Christ in the Revelation, praise He alone is worthy to receive.

Since that morning, the Resurrection has changed everyone who has believed it. The women. The disciples. Us.
We have hope. We have life, and we have a message to share.

Sound Mind Theology: Distortions and Fallacies

By Paula Wiseman

When someone asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was He answered, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment (Mark 12:29-30). As believers, we get that. Over the next several posts, I want to focus on the mind part. Today, we’ll do kind of a lengthy introduction and lay the foundation. You see, since the Fall we have struggled not only with the content of our thoughts but the process as well. Yes, even the very way we size up situations and apply knowledge and experience to them is tainted by sin. In other words, we are constantly plagued by fallacies and cognitive distortions.

What’s a fallacy?

A fallacy is a mistaken belief we hold that’s based on faulty logic. Here’s a dumb example. Cats have four legs. Winnie has four legs. Therefore, Winnie is a cat. The conclusion seems to follow, right? Well, Winnie is my dog, my four-legged non-cat dog. The conclusion was built on some faulty premises. Yes, cats have four legs, but so do a lot of other critters. The REALITY is, Winnie is a dog. (See a picture of Winnie.)

Let me get a little more personal. I have failed many times. God doesn’t use people who fail. Therefore, God can’t use me. Again, while that seems to follow, the premises are so faulty. So faulty. Everyone fails. If God is going to use any people, His only options are people who fail. God does in fact use people who have failed. Therefore, He most certainly can use you.

Cognitive distortions

Distortions are much trickier to root out. We reinforce these unfounded, irrational ideas — almost always about ourselves, overwhelmingly negative –so often that they become automatic. They are our go-to responses.

For example, let’s say one of my students scores a ninety-five on a chemistry test. Her response is, “Well, the test was probably just easy. I bet everyone else got A’s too.” That’s messed up. You know it and I know it. Chemistry isn’t easy. Clearly, she scored well because she studied and she’s smart enough to understand the material.

The insidious thing about cognitive distortions is that we are so comfortable with them we no longer see the irrationality of our thinking. Usually, a close confidant has to point out the distortions. Sometimes, we will fight and defend our distortion when someone calls us on it.

And we often don’t realize we can change those deeply held distortions. We just need a dose of truth.

The source of truth

For believers, everything goes back to the Word of God. Applying the truth of what God says about Himself and about us is the only way we can realign the fallacies and distortions we hang on to. When we live in the light God’s word, we can exchange those lies for truth.

So over the next few weeks, we’re going to look at some fallacies and distortions and apply a healthy dose of truth to them, “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Struggling to Believe

By Paula

Sometimes when we follow Jesus, He asks very difficult things of us. Take the apostle Paul for example. In our comfortable 21st century existence, the kind of hardships Paul endured are less than appealing. Even if we don’t face physical persecution, emotional upheavals can leave us in a place where we find ourselves struggling to believe God and His promises.

The fact is we are often unaware how much our life experience colors our understanding of God and His word. If we are carrying emotional scars from a difficult past, it may be next to impossible to believe that God is loving, that He welcomes us, that He delights in us, that He will never leave us or forsake us or any of the other amazing promises He makes. We may grudgingly concede that the promises are true for others, but we balk when it comes to believing they are for us.

We can’t undo the past, or erase those scars. So how do we embrace those truths?

Admit there is a struggle.

One of my favorite statements in Scripture addresses this. It’s in Mark 9:24. A desperate father came to Christ seeking healing for his son. You can almost hear the anguish in his voice when he says “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!” He doesn’t fake. He doesn’t give the Sunday school answer. He is very humble and very genuine.

Realize the struggle is not a deal-breaker.

In fact, it’s common. In Scripture, we read about people like John the Baptist, Job, Paul, Moses, Elijah, Sarah, and so many others who had trouble grasping God’s promises. After Jesus’s resurrection, Peter went back to fishing. Maybe he thought he’d blown his chance to do great things because he failed so miserably in his denials. Maybe he thought something like “Jesus, I believe you can save me. I’m just not sure you can use me.” One word, Peter. Pentecost.

Finally, understand it takes time.

For something this critical, God won’t stand for any easy fixes. He is willing to take the time to ensure we “get” it. We will be forever changed afterward. In Scripture, folks came away from their struggles with new names, new callings, and on one occasion even a new limp, but all of those signified a fresh intimacy with Yahweh.

What have you struggled to believe? How did you work (or how are you working) to grab hold of it?

Don’t You Care?

By Paula

But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Mark 4:38

You know the story. Jesus and His disciples embark on a quick routine trip across the Sea of Galilee, but then a storm rises. Enough of a storm that the veteran fisherman were concerned that they might lose the boat and even their lives.

But I think the story is striking for another reason. I believe it taps into deep unspoken fears – fears that have nothing to do with drowning.

Fear #1 – We are on our own. When the storms come if we make it through it will be because of our own furious efforts.

Fear #2 – Jesus is unaware or unmoved by what we’re going through. Here we are struggling, fighting, perishing, and Jesus is absent.

Distilling those fears even further, the questions become, do I matter? Do You really love me? Which is the real Jesus? The one who says He loved me enough to die for me or the one who sleeps while I’m drowning?

This is the middle of the story though.

We have to examine the beginning and end of the story. In verse 35, Jesus says, Let’s cross over to the other side. The safe passage was guaranteed. He said they were going to the other side. The first thing to remember is Jesus’s purposes are going to be accomplished.

At the end of the story in verse 39, He says, “Peace, be still.” The wild chaotic elements of nature obey like a trained puppy. The other thing to remember is that He is in charge and has the power to back that up.

Then Jesus responds with His own question. “How is it that you have no faith?”

Because we’re afraid. We are more focused on what’s inside and around us than the One who is with us. We forget who made the plans and who has the power.

And for the record, yes. He cares.

He guaranteed they would reach the other side of the lake because He cared. He calmed the wind and waves because He cared. Most importantly, He got in the boat with them because He cared.

Signs of Hardness: Failing to Respond

By Paula Wiseman

In the Old Testament and New Testament, we are warned not to harden our hearts. In our current series, we’ve begun considering some cautionary signposts that mean we are on the road to a heart hardened toward God. So far, we’ve discussed disobedience, wealth, discontent, rejecting correction, and refusing to listen. We’ll wrap up with a consideration of a similar tactic, failing to respond.

What does it mean to fail to respond?

Simply put, when we are presented with clear, obvious truth and instruction and we know we should act but don’t, we are guilty of failing to respond. We know stories of people who were under conviction, and they knew it, but instead of yielding to the Holy Spirit, they steeled themselves and didn’t respond. Eventually the conviction dissipated, and God left them with the consequences of their decision.

In a less drastic case, I’ve heard men who were sure God was calling them to ministry and they refused the call. They were left with a lifetime of regret and questions of what might have been.

In Matthew 13:13, Jesus explained to His disciples why He taught in parables. He said, “Seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” Because the crowds refused to acknowledge Jesus’s true identity, choosing instead to see Him simply as a healer, a teacher, a foil for the self-righteous Pharisees, their hearts were hardened to the truth. The disciples, on the other hand, answered Jesus’s call and enjoyed an ever-deepening relationship with Christ.

Our indifference also damages our testimony. When nonbelievers see that our faith can easily be discarded, why would they want to embrace it?

How does it produce hardness?

Failing to respond trains us to ignore the voice of God. The only way we can do that is to harden our hearts against it. God made us for a relationship with Him. We damage the fellowship we enjoy when fail to respond. We show that God’s instructions are not compelling, that His kingdom is not a priority and that His favor is not valued.

How do you soften a heart hardened by a failure to respond?

Submission to the Spirit

Paul issued a quick admonition to the Thessalonians. Do not quench the Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19). The Holy Spirit is the very presence of God in our lives, a gift to guide us and keep us on track. He is tasked with conforming us to Christ’s image. Don’t ignore or interfere with what He is doing with us.

The writer of Hebrews in chapter 3 quotes Psalm 95:7-8.

Today, if you will hear His voice: “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness.”

The hardheartedness is rooted in rebellion rather that submission. It always is.

Faith

Jesus had a rebuke for His disciples after His resurrection.

Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.
Mark 16:14

Faith is Christ, belief in His word is the antidote for a hard heart.

As we wrap up, all hardness of the heart is the outworking of sin in our lives. The writer of Hebrews explains:

[B]ut exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3:13

We buy into lies and distance ourselves from God. We’ve been doing it since Eden.